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Prototype Motherboard Clusters Self-Coordinating Modules
An anonymous reader writes "A group of hardware hackers has created a motherboard prototype that uses separate modules, each of which has its own processor, memory and storage. Each square cell in this design serves as a mini-motherboard and network node; the cells can allocate power and decide to accept or reject incoming transmissions and programs independently. Together, they form a networked cluster with significantly greater power than the individual modules. The design, called the Illuminato X Machina, is vastly different from the separate processor, memory and storage components that govern computers today."
don't understand.
So how do you upgrade this? I would assume you would add more modules but that would increase the space of the computer and so tiny computers would be underpowered while you could get one the size of a large TV that would be lightning fast, but who wants a huge computer? Especially for a laptop or HTPC.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Can you say "Multi-boxed Shamans"?
So much for the Neumann-Neumann dance.
Am I too old to remember them? And before that, there was Connection Machine...
Also (yes, I clicked on TFA! :) ), planar (in graph theory terms) interconnect topology would seem a bit too simplistic for anything resembling efficient routing...
Paul B.
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of...oh...wait...never mind.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Are they hiring people to write an OS for it? Eventually all of those nodes need to be able to talk to a video card, display something on a screen, talk to a network card and communicate with the network in a fashion that the general public will expect.
I wouldn't even do it for the money. Provide me with a suitable environment and I would do it just because it would be enjoyable. I cannot do it while sleeping on the street and eating peanut butter and jelly, though.
I am trying to figure out if it would be a sin to work on a project like that. If housing and support were dependent on me working on a project then it would be a sin. If someone would say,"We trust that what you do isn't 'evil', here's a place to stay and an allotment for meals and resources, here are the specs that we have now, and here's a whole room full of dry erase boards. Have at it."
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
This is exactly how the replicators began.... Slow old 72Mhz processors and then you put enough of them together and the thing goes evil and start taking over the universe.....
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Guarantee it comes short
David Ackley brags, "We have a CPU, RAM, data storage and serial ports for connectivity on every two square inches."
That sounds kinda expensive to me, even at only 72MHz/16K/128K per module.
That thing is hella cool. The longer demo is better, you may have to rtfa and click 3 links deep or so though.
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... to think that I wanted to cook up something similar 5 yrs ago!
Couldn't drum up enough interest in my fellow engineering colleagues: too interested in getting a shit temp job (after a masters degree, BTW)
Oh well, glad someone is doing it...
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Potentially this could still run a normal OS such as Linux, though I would imagine this would definitely use an interesting bootloader. The distributed operating system route could also be taken - using an OS similar to 'Plan 9'.
I think the magic words related to this motherboard design is Parallel Computing!
Disclaimer: I have no CS degree and a very basic understanding of OSes and hardware.
into the 3rd Dimension. Imagine if they also had connectors on the top and bottom of the unit. We could then start to do real matrix programming. Once CPU could talk to 6 and traverse the levels or talk to peers depending on the need. If they were also on the diaganols, they could get even more complex. More like the human brain.
Wow, I'd really like to have about 512 of these to play around with! I can see doing something very cool with these and a little bit of fuzzy logic or neural network programming. I just wonder how addressing is handled.
Bill
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Cell# 3712: Hey guys, have you noticed that #1914 never seems to accept requests?
Cell# 141: Well, he does sometimes reject.
Cell# 4439: I don't route to him very much anyway.
Cell# 1142: He rejected the last three of mine. I kind of agree.
Cell# 3712: So what should we do about it?
Cell# 141: Can't we just fry him? There's plenty of us anyway.
Cell# 3712: That's a bit harsh.
Cell# 4439: Ok, I got the records here showing that he rejected 90% of requests the last week but allocated two hundred percent of average power to himself.
Cell# 3712: That motherfucker, let's do it then.
Cell# 1142: I don't really want to fry him, but I don't mind that much if you do.
Cell# 141: Ok, gather up all your spare power, STAT!
So it's a small, shitty mainframe.
..Marketing for a very mundane solution. Seriously, this has been done to death, the design, as others have already pointed out is limited, the computational power is poor, the communication infrastructure will be weak, and there is no point in designing in more points of failure when the job that can be accomplished by even a large number of these things can be done by a single, off the shelf consumer processor. The marketing drivel alone makes it sound like a ploy to raise money.
I notice some people are commenting Linux or BSD etc would work on this hardware but I would have thought an OS like Tron would have been more ideal.
as one poster had said, it would be much more sensible to integrate multiple cores onto an FPGA, and put the real time into the implementation of a bus that could realistically move data between the cores
not to mention that their choice of parts was sub-optimal. the cortex m3 is not the suggested replacement for arm7 by accident, it offers 1.25 dmips/mhz (compared to this arm's 0.89 dmips/mhz), an instruction set with optimized code density versus performance, more predictable interrupt handling, mpu, probably better power consumption, etc. for practically the same price.
if you ask me this is an academia project run by a bunch of hippies who are spending their time on all of the wrong aspects in this kind of decentralized computing concept.
You have just re-invented Lego. Seriously, I like this idea. Want a gaming system? Put these together. Want a server? Put those together instead. Some component break? Swap it out.
I've had exactly this idea for a couple years now, if not anywhere near a workable design. If it's done properly, it could be very interesting.
It being done properly would require:
* Distributed power
* Very high speed and high-reliability inter-module communication
* Hotplugging
* Standardized inter-module APIs and connectors
* An OS capable of organizing the entire system seamlessly (I have my ideas) and securely (I don't)
I can't speak to the technical abilities of such a system but if it was running it could easily become one of those sci-fi systems from the movies that everyone insists can be done but which has yet to appear--taking "your" part of the computer with you and just plugging your desktop session in to whatever computer you come across. You could also have software running on modules that is separate from the CPU, so that, for instance, your hard drive will not only defrag on its own when not busy, but will also do virus and spyware scans. And if you have a module that just absolutely can't be allowed to be reverse-engineered, have it have its own secret processor and instruction set with capabilities that are accessable to the system via APIs without the internal processes being at all open to the system.
I'm sure they wouldn't be interested, but I'll have to find and send an email to these guys.
The largest one I've played with was one board with 8 or 16 TRAMs, it fit into what was the PC bus at the time, maybe as old as IDE...
By any chance, does the second part of your nickname refer to this particular interest of yours? :)
Paul B.
Can they make the cluster survive a destruction of several nodes?
There are many situations where this would be beneficial such as space craft design and military electronics. Even with several nodes severely damaged, the machine can re-route processing to the remaining nodes. Although overall processing speed might be reduced, there will be no loss of functionality.
I buy equipment from these guys, glad to see they are still at it. Why read about it when you can buy your own copy of this project
Replicators. First thing that popped into my mind.
Give those "Illuminato X Machina" things legs and we're all HOSED.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I designed that a good 10 years ago as a means to multiply the use of military comms equipment - the idea was to combine processing units if more computing horse power was required in theather. However, it emerged that volume was more interesting than flexibility (why sell one device if you can get paid for two)..
Insert
Looks like a cute idea, but a single modern CPU will easily outperform a whole table of these processors, which makes the whole exercise a bit pointless. This is especially true for problems that aren't embarrassingly parallel. A single processor will be much easier to program too. If you want to go faster than a single processor, the most effective way is to combine already fast CPUs, with lots of memory, and a fast interconnect network, preferably using cache coherent NUMA architecture. Those systems already exist too.
Together, they form...
Wyld Stallyns? ... a networked cluster with significantly greater power than the individual modules.
I think my version would have been better.
Reminds me of heart cells. Two heart cells seperated will beat independently, but when they are placed within touching distance of themselves they will synchronize and beat in unison. The more you add, the more the fun.
Okay, question one is why are they underclocking (or using really cheap versions of) the ARMs I know they are pretty close to a GHz for expensive ones and mass produced g ear (very price sensitive) doesn't go below about 200MHz.
The second is why aren't they using a fractal grid ie:
So a processor has four links from it's corners and they are linked together into a group of four that has links from the four corners. Repeat to infinity.
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He went through blindfolded like all of us too. What he didn't realise is it wasn't Rob Malda's dick it was mine.
It's about time. I've been wanting them to be built like that for over a decade.
Turns out asimov was right! pretty soon it'll be to the point where the transistors cant get any smaller and we'll have to turn to a pattern just like this. When the cpu cant get any stronger you just need more of them. Personally I'd like to be able to go out and keep buying cheap 1GB ram modules over and over, but i can't because everything is so integrated that I have to buy a new board, which means a new chip and GPU etc etc. The all in one design is always superior right at the moment, but I think modular is better in the long run considering the impact n the rest of your system.
* An OS capable of organizing the entire system seamlessly (I have my ideas)
Plan 9. It's not an SSI, but it's pretty seamless if you don't need process migration or anything. And pretty fast, and dead easy to program.
and securely (I don't)
Again Plan 9.
Welcome to 2 years ago. SiCortex did that, moved on to shared memory, went out of business.
I cant find the reference, but i remember seeing something like that using 'building blocks' in an old Byte, early 80's
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Been waiting long for this. I often say I want my computers cpu & memory been biult of modules, simply expandable like lego. I you lÃook into tadays computer, its just a box full off limits.
Not wanting to sound like a troll, but I'm surprised that David Ackley says he **downloads** the code when in fact he is **uploading**, or better still, he is **programming** the board.
Already extant and picking up speed : quantum entangled molecules, light transistors, qbit chips, qbit registers, slow light, and er, 'stoplight' nanogrids... When they start coming of age, architecture and connectivity might become 'a bit more transcendent'. Planar is probably going to mean something else.
So... say, er, 2012-ish ?
I have for quite some time wondered why we have these monolithic motherboards rather then some kind of connector between multiple smaller boards.
hell, is this not somewhat similar to a mainframe, in that if two of these where hooked up to a storage module (hardrive/ssd), they could exchange data on request, without affecting the rest of the cluster much?
hmm, if it had enough flash, could one suspend a whole process to a card, remove said card, pop it in somewhere else, and resume?
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